Mesa Water District wins Outstanding Groundwater Project Award from National Ground Water Association

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(WESTERVILLE, OH — September 27, 2012) Mesa Water District (Mesa Water) in Costa Mesa, California, has received an Outstanding Groundwater Project Award from the National Ground Water Association for outstanding science, engineering, and innovation in the area of protecting groundwater.

This Groundwater Protection Award, being given in honor of Mesa Water’s $21 million Colored Water Treatment Facility Technology Replacement and Expansion Project, which began in March 2009, will be presented in December at the NGWA Groundwater Expo and Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mesa Water sits above a portion of Orange County’s groundwater basin that stores amber-colored water with a sulfur smell from ancient redwood forests. While the water is safe to drink, Mesa Water constructed its Colored Water Treatment Facility in 2001 to use this mostly unused water source. Two goals were to provide a more reliable water supply and reduce reliance on more expensive imported water.

In 2009, Mesa Water discovered that seawater was increasing the color levels in the groundwater beyond the plant’s treatment capabilities. In response, Mesa Water began an ambitious improvement project to upgrade the treatment facility and increase its capacity.

Working with the Orange County Water District, Mesa Water used nanofiltration technology to treat the increasing color levels. Other system modifications were employed to stop the migration of the colored water into primary portions of the aquifer.

Project benefits include:

Improved water quality and halting the migration of colored water elsewhere in the aquifer

A 43 percent reduction in energy use

Increased water independence by increasing the plant’s capacity from 4,000 gallons per minute of treated water to 6,000 gallons per minute.

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NGWA, a nonprofit organization composed of U.S. and international groundwater professionals — contractors, equipment manufacturers, suppliers, scientists, and engineers — is dedicated to advancing groundwater knowledge. NGWA’s vision is to be the leading groundwater association that advocates the responsible development, management, and use of water.